is way;
and I fear not one farmer in ten will succeed the first winter he
undertakes it, unless he gives it his personal attention. It is well
worth trying, however, because if your heap should freeze up, it will
be, at any rate, in no worse condition than if managed in the ordinary
way; and if you do succeed, even in part, you will have manure in good
condition for immediate use in the spring.

As I have said before, I keep a good many pigs. Now pigs, if fed on
slops, void a large quantity of liquid manure, and it is not always easy
to furnish straw enough to absorb it. When straw and stalks are cut into
chaff, they will absorb much more liquid than when used whole. For this
reason we usually cut all our straw and stalks. We also use the litter
from the horse-stable for bedding the store hogs, and also sometimes,
when comparatively dry, we use the refuse sheep bedding for the same
purpose. Where the sheep barn is contiguous to the pig-pens, and when
the sheep bedding can be thrown at once into the pig-pens or cellar, it
is well to use bedding freely for the sheep and lambs, and remove it
frequently, throwing it into the pig-pens. I do not want my sheep to be
compelled to eat up the straw and corn-stalks too close. I want them to
pick out what they like, and then throw away what they leave in the
troughs for bedding. Sometimes we take out a five-bushel basketful of
these direct from the troughs, for bedding young pigs, or sows and pigs
in the pens, but as a rule, we use them first for bedding the sheep, and
then afterwards use the sheep bedding in the fattening or store
pig-pens.

"And sometimes," remarked the Deacon, "you use a little long straw for
your young pigs to sleep on, so that they can bury themselves in the
straw and keep warm."

"True," I replied, "and it is not a bad plan, but we are not now talking
about the management of pigs, but how we treat our manure, and how we
manage to have it ferment all winter."

A good deal of our pig-manure is, to borrow a phrase from the
pomologists, "double-worked." It is horse or sheep-manure, used for
bedding pigs and cows. It is saturated with urine, and is much richer in
nitrogenous material than ordinary manure, and consequently will ferment
or putrefy much more rapidly. Usually pig-manure is considered "cold,"
or sluggish, but this doubleworked pig-manure will ferment even more
rapidly than sheep or horse-manure alone.

Unmixed cow-manure is heavy and cold, and